Question

You work for Plush Carpets, a major carpet brand, as the Director of Recruitment. Your company has 20 showrooms around the country and your major customers include interior designers who resell the carpet they purchase to their high-wealth clients.

Your sales people, on average, have been with the company for 30 years and many will be retiring over the next 2 years.

The Vice President of Human Resources (VP of HR) has asked you to develop a recruitment strategy that results in adding 2 new account managers (sales professionals) for each showroom over the next 6 months so there is overlap and the existing account managers can train the new account managers on the products, information technology (IT) systems and standard operating procedures before members of the sales team begin to retire.

Plush Carpets' current Mission is as follows:

To provide a customer experience that can’t be duplicated by the competition. This is achieved through superior customer service and quality production of any type of carpet design and size that our customers require.

Plush Carpets’ Strategy is as follows:

To remain the market leader in the high-end (high $$$$) niche market indefinitely by continuously investing in technologies that improve the carpet manufacturing process and quality; to train our employees to always work as a team; and to always innovate to ensure customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to continued sales revenue and profit.

Plush Carpets’ main financial goal is as follows:

Grow the company from a $250 million to a $1 billion company over the next five years.

(The VP of HR wants to meet with you in a week to hear your recruitment strategy outline and the results of a general SWOT analysis related to the company)

For this role-play answer the following questions.

1. What are some potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to Plus Carpets that you might uncover as a result of your SWOT analysis?
2. What do you think are some of Plush Carpets’ core competencies and why?
3. How can you use Plush Carpets’ core competencies to ensure your recruitment strategy will be successful? (Think Strategic Leadership)

Answer 1

Answer 1= The main strengths are as below=

Market leadership position in the carpet industry

The clientele includes the rich customers

Having a stronger relationship with the salespeople

Good working environment

Strong financial position

Greater customer loyalty

Higher quality of products and greater customer services

Customization of products

Weaknesses are as below=

Some of the key salespeople might retire in the near future

Opportunity can be seen as the expansion of the market share and increased probability of improved revenue

Threat can be seen as unavailability of the required talent and interest competition in the market

Answer 2= The main core competencies of the company can be seen as its ability to produce high-quality customizable products and it has a greater innovative approach towards its processes. The company uses the high technology and has skilled and talented manpower who are able to provide greater customer service. The reasons for these core competencies are that the company is the market leader in the carpet industry and has dedicated and talented employees who know their work well and always ready to serve the customers. The company has the latest production technology and thus has the ability to customize the product as per the need of the customers.

Answer 3= In order to have a successful recruitment strategy, the company should appoint those account managers who may have the capability to carry with the legacy of the company to serve the customer better. The employees must be selected on basis of the core competencies such as skill sets to sell the product, providing better services to the customers, having good knowledge about carpet business and can match with the policies and mission of the company. They must be good team players, dedicated towards their work, having the ability to deal with an unforeseen situation